Going down to NC was a wonderful reprieve to the pace of NY. NYC. This was a 2-part trip, part fishing and part riding. I needed to get outside.

So with the car packed with gear, I headed down to Charlotte, met my brother, Brian, and we drove out to Black Mountain. It was some quality fly fishing.

After a couple of days of fishing I met with an old friend, Gavin, who has taken up cycling and teammate Mitch, who has relocated to Black Mountain for the time being. Our longest planned ride was a route up to Mitchell and back, we decided to do first. The weather looked good albeit a little variable. Maybe some rain, almost 60 degrees down near Old Fort and a chilly 42 up at the summit. The ride up would be hot, the descent, cold.

We started near our fishing campsite and climbed up Curtis Creek Road to the parkway. Curtis Creek Road is doable on a road bike going up, but going down would be tough. A good bit of the surface is packed gravel, though there are some loose spots, and there is an average grade of about 6% increasing to 14% in sections. It can be steep.

Arriving at the parkway and getting on the tarmac certainly felt like a nice reprieve. The Blue Ridge Parkway is great, especially this time of year, when it’s partly closed to cars. High tourist season is over, and the colors have faded from their vibrant yellows and oranges to muted velvety reds and golden browns. The leafless oaks and maples allow a good view down into the green rhododendron and Fraser firs. If you don’t mind a little chill then it’s all the better on a bike.

Meandering our way along the ridge we could see Mt. Mitchell across the valley, robed in clouds and mist and as we circled to the park entrance, we came upon a dense cloud vail. We rode into the abyss.

Climbing up into the park, the winds began to whip and now the clouds rolled across the road like gray boulders.

Despite not being able to see across to other ranges we were still blessed with some fine wild views for our pains. Mitch found some hot chocolate and warm treats even.

The way down out of the park got a bit exciting. The road was damp and the wind got me to shivering, so by squeezing on the brakes I could develop a nice vibration through the bike and myself. Back on the parkway we had a few inclines and the further down we got the warmer it became.

Another advantage of the parkway is that none of the turns are that tight. This allows a someone on a bike to simply descend as fast as the road will let you, or if you're less fortunate, as fast as the cars in front of you will let you. In our case, we kept up with a crew of 3 motorcyclists until we got to the next incline.

We headed North on the parkway back to route 80. Gavin and I have done that descent before and knew we wanted to hit it again, “could be the most fun I’ve had on 2 wheels”. He’s right, there are tight turns, some banked, hair pins, surface is pretty good, and at the end it gives away into a long downhill straightaway. We always look to ride down 80 when we get together down here.

We arrived back at the van. The first ride complete, 60 miles down with 7,100 feet of climbing. Unlike most rides though almost all the climbing came in the first 20 miles. We headed to Hillman Brewery for some deserved libations.

We went out on a few other rides through the week, a loop near Canton, west of Asheville and a 30 mile decent from Black Balsam Knob to Canton. Both producing the same great Blue Ridge Mountain views.

The last ride was a fun loop led by an old friend of mine from the Clemson Freeride Club days. Will moved to Asheville after Clemson for “work”, I know it was really the riding. He took us up to Elk Mountain through the north neighborhoods of Asheville. There were a number of other riders on the route, so it may be well known to those in the area, much less so to those visiting. It kept us on some quieter roads with a few nice scenes back south over Asheville. Even got to see a black bear scrambling down the hillside toward us. I thought about sticking around to get a good shot of it but thought better of it He was close enough.

We jumped up the climbs at a lively pace from north of Asheville and stopping at the top overlook before descending west down Elk Scenic Highway back into Asheville.

It was great riding all around.